Five Major Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the main instigator, aided by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We analyze five moments that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat confirms that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
